Remote islands have been used for military operations for the better part of a century, and were frequently used at the dawn of the atomic age, for weapons testing. Times are changing and now at least one south pacific atoll is playing a crucial role in the rapidly growing commercial space race.

Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands has become the dominant site for commercial rocket testing. Historically the island was used by the American military after it was captured by the Japanese during world war two in 1944.

Today the island home to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). The company which is owned by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, has been in the space business since 2006 since the construction of its commercial launch site on Omelek Island for its Falcon 1 rockets.

Space X has had some difficulty, its first rocket in March 2006 failed one minute into flight after the rocket suffered a fuel leak. A second rocket launched a year later reached orbit five minutes after takeoff but was also lost when it started rolling uncontrollably. Most recently, on August 5th 2008 Space X lost a third rocket that was carrying three satellites into orbit for NASA and the Department of Defense.

However, the outlook is promising for this island space port. The company has won a contract from NASA to take over the cargo services of the space shuttle to the International Space Station in 2010. 

Visit the link for more information on Space X.